Why is Bitcoin difficult to understand?

[NeuroticFish]

You need to understand a small number of things:
1. Wallet safety and computer safety.

To play devil's advocate, this alone is sometimes too complicated a subject for many people, heh.  By the time you've told them to be careful with online services designed to hold funds (which should always be one of the first things to explain to new users), make regular backups, how to store the backups securely, use a unique and strong password, not lose your password, how to keep your devices secure and malware-free, etc. many of them will have glazed over and forgotten half of what you just told them.  

You're right, security can be a tough subject.
But there are also shortcuts there too, up-to-date antivirus/anti-malware/internet security is a start, don't click any links just because you've got them by e-mail (and also don't install every cr*p) is common sense and the hardware wallets are the cherry on top. See? Almost done. It's also common sense to read the manual and the hardware wallet will also tell to write down the seed and keep it super-safe.

And no, no online wallets, starting with "online services to hold funds" usually leads to safety risks and also can lead to misunderstandings (related to fees, for example).

[RNGfight]

Even now most people entering the crypto-currency market see bitcoin only as a speculative tool.
This is not appropriate, however, because they have not really discovered the value of bitcoin.

[BagzMM]

Anybody could learn if theirs a willingness on it. If someone is interested to explore then in could be more easier to learn. Just take it slowly and not to feel hopeless then at the end of the day you will explore and love the world of BTC.

[ShitTL]

I find bitcoin as simple as our currency. One thing is that bitcoin does not use cash as our currency, if you have passion as well as you like discovering what you are going to understand. related to bitcoin

[Batask]

Anybody could learn if theirs a willingness on it. If someone is interested to explore then in could be more easier to learn. Just take it slowly and not to feel hopeless then at the end of the day you will explore and love the world of BTC.

There is no difficult to understand if you are deteremine enough to learn, if you are interested on something give some effort and willingness, just take it slowly, slowly but surely. Put some effort if you are willing to understand the nature of bitcoin. You will slowly realize the world of bitcoin someday.

[hermae]

Anybody could learn if theirs a willingness on it. If someone is interested to explore then in could be more easier to learn. Just take it slowly and not to feel hopeless then at the end of the day you will explore and love the world of BTC.

There is no difficult to understand if you are deteremine enough to learn, if you are interested on something give some effort and willingness, just take it slowly, slowly but surely. Put some effort if you are willing to understand the nature of bitcoin. You will slowly realize the world of bitcoin someday.

Bitcoin may be difficult to understand for the people who dont have interest in it. If a person is really eager to know more about bitcoin, then he will find a way to understand it better. There are many references one can find like in google, videos in youtube and in the bitcoin forum.

[Phinoy]

If you look at it as Currency, it is difficult for an average person to understand it because it is different.
Bitcoin, being a different kind of a digital currency, it breaks down conventional thinking in many aspects. No central regulatory body. The concept of mining. The open-ledger (blockchain), the way miners are rewarded, how transporting value is determined by its packet size and not value, the hash rate, the concept of limited supply. The 100 Million pennies in a Bitcoin, etc.
Its difficult enough for people in the money space to thoroughly understand Bitcoin (we all say we understand it, but do we really?).
For a common person, its an overkill. Its like trying to explain the concept of TCP/IP, Networking, Routing, the Internet for someone who wants to use email.  Overkill.

May be yes that is how it all works. For general public bitcoin is just medium of transaction and lately it is just way of earning money. Thats all people think about it. In reality no one really want to understand how bitcoin is really working here or how the mechanism of action takes place when someone transact over the blockchain and how miners catch and verify it. They just know that its BTC and it has got value wroth thousands of dollars. They know various ways to grow their fiat by means of using bitcoin. That is all it is for general population and I think it will stay as it is !

For those who are not interested on that particular activities like bitcoin it is difficult to understand of course to the people who are started on the activities but if you ask there is no way not to be understand and also research and always update on what is new so that you are updated always on that particular activities you are joining.

[Donotfoolme]

blockchain is an online ledger of transsactions accessible for all people.it is irreversible
some people really need some information about bitcoin , bitcoin is just a name of a coin .
bitcoin isnt difficult bitcoin is a good news of all people .

[dothebeats]

TBH if a user only intend using bitcoin on general transactions like sending and receiving, the user doesn't need to know about the inner workings and technicalities accompanied by it. The option of sending or receiving money by just scanning a QR code is actually good for the average Joes who wish to use the cryptocurrency. Also, fiat with its inner workings and technicalities is also difficult to grasp, but do people need to know about it? No, because as long as the paper/coin is able to hold value and is transferable, they can use it in exchange for goods and services, just like what bitcoin does essentially.

[lynttrs]

If you look at it as Currency, it is difficult for an average person to understand it because it is different.
Bitcoin, being a different kind of a digital currency, it breaks down conventional thinking in many aspects. No central regulatory body. The concept of mining. The open-ledger (blockchain), the way miners are rewarded, how transporting value is determined by its packet size and not value, the hash rate, the concept of limited supply. The 100 Million pennies in a Bitcoin, etc.
Its difficult enough for people in the money space to thoroughly understand Bitcoin (we all say we understand it, but do we really?).
For a common person, its an overkill. Its like trying to explain the concept of TCP/IP, Networking, Routing, the Internet for someone who wants to use email.  Overkill.

Because bitcoin is something new that people are not used to. It takes time for people the grasp the meaning and significance of it. But you don't have to totally understand the difficult technicalities behind to get involved with cryptocurrency. A basic research would help a beginner to start his way up.

[Tosg399]

1).Mining is the way the bitcoin transactions are completed on the network. All over the world, computers verify bitcoin sending/receiving.
“The blockchain and mining — they are, of course, related.” –Joseph Hsieh, co-founder of Expresscoin
“Mining centralization: to what extent will it happen in the long term, and what will be its effect on Bitcoin’s decentralized nature?” –Elliot Michael Lee, engineer at Braintree.
“Economic benefits of not having monolithic trusted third parties middle-manning transactions, as well as how miner incentives will keep the network flowing, and how digital mining compares to real mineral mining.” –Chase Sechrist, just a spectator.
2).Speculation-The price of bitcoin seems to always be in flux. It’s a rather volatile store of value because it is still so new.
“It’s confusing to everyday people to distinguish between bitcoin (currency) and bitcoin (Protocol).” –Michael Dunworth, co-founder SnapCard
“People are usually reticent about investing in Bitcoin because of the high price tag on 1 coin. They don’t realize that a bitcoin can be broken into hundreths of millionths of peices, so unfortunately lose out on a great investment opportunity.” –Jason Rosenstein, technologist and entrepreneur
“Why its value hasn’t grown faster.” –Luis Buenaventura II, co-founder and head of product at Rebit.ph

[MainIbem]

I encountered a similar situation. What my mentor instructed me was as simple as this. View bitcoin in abstract context. He added, because everything about bitcoin is abstract. They are mathematical postulation and solutions.

I did and that has helped me continue to get a better understanding of bitcoin.

[richminded]

Anybody could learn if theirs a willingness on it. If someone is interested to explore then in could be more easier to learn. Just take it slowly and not to feel hopeless then at the end of the day you will explore and love the world of BTC.

Exactly, if you really want to understand not just bitcoin but the whole cryptocurrency you must put effort on knowing more about this technology. Don’t expect someone to spoon feed everything to you, its time to stand up and adopt the system, if it still hard then do better.

[JamescrypTrader]

I agreed that it is difficult to understand for a common person. But surely not overskill. If anyone try to understand and do sufficient study on bitcoin, it will be nothing gradually. If you found it difficult more now, you can do a thorough study at https://lopp.net/bitcoin.html
I believe it will help you a lot to be clear as water.

[Eureka_07]

If you look at it as Currency, it is difficult for an average person to understand it because it is different.
Bitcoin, being a different kind of a digital currency, it breaks down conventional thinking in many aspects. No central regulatory body. The concept of mining. The open-ledger (blockchain), the way miners are rewarded, how transporting value is determined by its packet size and not value, the hash rate, the concept of limited supply. The 100 Million pennies in a Bitcoin, etc.
Its difficult enough for people in the money space to thoroughly understand Bitcoin (we all say we understand it, but do we really?).
For a common person, its an overkill. Its like trying to explain the concept of TCP/IP, Networking, Routing, the Internet for someone who wants to use email.  Overkill.

Bitcoin becomes hard to understand because of two things: First, we do not completely understand bitcoin because we lack knowledge about it. Many people are afraid to take risk on bitcoin because the only knowledge they know is what they hear from news or sometimes the gossips. Another thing is, lack of interest, maybe bitcoin for some people is not their forte so they don't lend too much of their time to bitcoin.

[Nelly.G0211]

If you look at it as Currency, it is difficult for an average person to understand it because it is different.
Bitcoin, being a different kind of a digital currency, it breaks down conventional thinking in many aspects. No central regulatory body. The concept of mining. The open-ledger (blockchain), the way miners are rewarded, how transporting value is determined by its packet size and not value, the hash rate, the concept of limited supply. The 100 Million pennies in a Bitcoin, etc.
Its difficult enough for people in the money space to thoroughly understand Bitcoin (we all say we understand it, but do we really?).
For a common person, its an overkill. Its like trying to explain the concept of TCP/IP, Networking, Routing, the Internet for someone who wants to use email.  Overkill.

i think, now there are lots of information about blockchains and how they work. And I would say that there are different kinds of videos you can choose one to watch according your needs. For example, if you need to know general information, you don't need to choose some detailed reviews. Anyway, lots of information to get))

[hdtqisg]

Bitcoin is not difficult to understand in terms of using Bitcoin's algorithms. You need to be a real developer to understand, so for simplicity, you just have to protect your private.

[jose111]

If you look at it as Currency, it is difficult for an average person to understand it because it is different.
Bitcoin, being a different kind of a digital currency, it breaks down conventional thinking in many aspects. No central regulatory body. The concept of mining. The open-ledger (blockchain), the way miners are rewarded, how transporting value is determined by its packet size and not value, the hash rate, the concept of limited supply. The 100 Million pennies in a Bitcoin, etc.
Its difficult enough for people in the money space to thoroughly understand Bitcoin (we all say we understand it, but do we really?).
For a common person, its an overkill. Its like trying to explain the concept of TCP/IP, Networking, Routing, the Internet for someone who wants to use email.  Overkill.

Actually, I think even in anything that was new technology that appears in our society it's probably hard to understand in the beginning but for a long time of existing it for sure we can understand it soon. However, this system is really hard to understand but I believe that if we very determinated and have much willingness to understanding it I think eventually we really know it and can understanding it very well.

[Lucius]

If you look at it as Currency, it is difficult for an average person to understand it because it is different.
Bitcoin, being a different kind of a digital currency, it breaks down conventional thinking in many aspects. No central regulatory body. The concept of mining. The open-ledger (blockchain), the way miners are rewarded, how transporting value is determined by its packet size and not value, the hash rate, the concept of limited supply. The 100 Million pennies in a Bitcoin, etc.
Its difficult enough for people in the money space to thoroughly understand Bitcoin (we all say we understand it, but do we really?).
For a common person, its an overkill. Its like trying to explain the concept of TCP/IP, Networking, Routing, the Internet for someone who wants to use email.  Overkill.

Cryptocurrency and BTC are still in some shadow, many people are aware of his existence, but less than 1% of world population it actually owns / uses it. The remaining 99% have a very superficial knowledge about it, or even have never heard of such a thing. Since we live in digital age and BTC is live last 9 years, probably the rate of adaptation should be somewhat higher, but for some reasons this is not the case yet.

I do not think it is difficult for people to understand BTC, most do not want to have any connection with cryptocurrency because all risks that come with it. Imagine how easy is to use fiat, you have money in the bank, you can pay with cash, credit card, online and your money is always secured. On the other hand there is BTC, you need to be your own bank, take care of safety, in case of hack/robbery there is no insurance and so on...

I think that most people in the world prefer the security of the existing financial system rather than experimenting with something new, but that will change with time.

[hachiman13]

I do understand bitcoin at a basic level and I don't think that's a problem. People who want to use a regular dollar wouldn't want to know how it was printed, what paper was used for it or anything insignificant. They just want to spend it (or not) because that's how currencies work. As for the deeper understanding of the concept behind it, we ought to leave those task to the brilliant minds.